Permanent Exhibit

Room３ ∈Battleground
of Hell∷

The
atrocities which the Okinawan people endured during the Battle are evinced symbolically both below
and above ground i.e., hiding in caves and wandering in the killing fields.

Avoiding a decisive battle in the Shuri area, the defending
Japanese army chose to withdraw to the southern part of the island to wage a
bloody war attrition.

Subsequently, the Japanese troops were
cornered at the southern tip of the island and were wiped out. In the end,
the area turned into an inferno where civilians and troops fled from one cave
to another in a desperate scrambled for life. In some caves, Japanese
soldiers slaughtered civilians, or forced them to commit mass suicide. Some
residents died of starvation. Outside, hell broke out as artillery fire,
mortar shells and flame throwers killed Japanese troops and residents en
mass.